St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

Store Street Manchester M1 2WD T 0300 123 4234 www.gov.uk/ofsted

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Mrs Sharon Easton St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School Worcester Avenue London N17 0TU

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

Following my visit to the school on 26 September 2017, I write on behalf of Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Education, Children’s Services and Skills to report the inspection findings. The visit was the first short inspection carried out since the school was judged to be good in July 2013.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

The leadership team has maintained the good quality of education in the school since the last inspection.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

Owing to the regeneration of the local area, many pupils join and leave the school at different times throughout the year. A growing number of pupils are joining the school with little knowledge of English, many of whom are from families whose circumstances make them vulnerable. You make sure that the school responds effectively to the changing nature of the pupil intake. There is a very welcoming and caring ethos in the school and teaching is of a consistently good quality. As a result, pupils make strong progress in their academic studies as well as in their personal development and welfare.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

You have increased the school’s leadership capacity by creating a new position of head of school. The successful candidate started in September 2016. You have also successfully reorganised the leadership team’s responsibilities. Leaders take effective responsibility for aspects of this school’s work as well of that of the adjoining infant school, of which you are also the executive headteacher. This means that pupils and their parents benefit from knowing the school’s leaders, expectations and policies as they move from the infant to the junior school.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

Leaders have a sound understanding of the school’s performance and are quick to address any identified weaknesses. Since the last inspection, pupils’ rates of overall progress in mathematics have improved considerably from being well below to well above average. During the last academic year, you successfully improved pupils’ outcomes in reading and reduced the number of pupils’ who are persistently absent. The 2017 provisional data shows that the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standards in reading increased on the previous year. However, standards declined in writing and mathematics, particularly for the most able pupils. You are very aware of these weaknesses and have already put in place strategies to address these.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

The designated safeguarding leaders have completed all the required training, at the correct level. They regularly train all members of staff on a range of safeguarding and welfare issues. Leaders and members of staff are well aware of the different forms of potential abuse that might occur in the community. They are vigilant and report any concerns or changes of behaviour so that leaders can take prompt action.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

Leaders work closely with pupils, their families and external agencies to ensure their welfare and safety. Members of staff actively check, for instance, to see if pupils are eating properly in school, in case they are not getting a nourishing diet at home. Additionally, the school runs its own food bank to support local families in need.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

The school’s website has useful information for parents and for pupils on how to keep safe, especially when using the internet and social media.

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Short inspection of St Paul’s and All Hallows CofE Junior School

The leadership team has ensured that all safeguarding arrangements are fit for purpose and records are detailed and of a very high quality.

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Inspection findings

 In the 2016 Year 6 tests, the proportion of pupils who reached the expected standards in reading was low. I explored with leaders how they are improving the quality of teaching of reading and its impact on pupils’ outcomes.  Leaders recognised after the 2016 results that reading needed to be a priority for improvement. For example, the reading leader identified a school that taught reading successfully from which the staff could learn best practice. Leaders trained teachers and the school implemented a new scheme of teaching and learning of reading in the late autumn of 2016. Leaders gave reading a higher profile than previously. Improved class libraries and a variety of other activities have encouraged pupils to develop a love of reading at school and at home. Visits from theatre and dance groups, for instance, have enabled pupils to link these performances to stories with which pupils were familiar. Provisional 2017

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Inspection findings

data shows that the proportion of pupils reaching the expected standard in reading increased from a half in 2016 to two thirds in 2017. While rates of progress have risen, overall, progress in reading is not yet as strong as it is in writing and mathematics.  The 2017 provisional results show that the progress of the most able pupils in reading and writing was slower when compared with their peers and similar pupils nationally. I wanted to find out what leaders are doing to raise standards for the most able pupils.  There is already a range of enrichment activities on offer for gifted and talented pupils, for example participation in the Children’s University programme, and visits to a secondary school for a day of science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning. Leaders have identified the need to ensure that a higher proportion of the most able pupils reach the higher standards. They have begun

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Inspection findings

to make some changes. At this stage, the changes are mainly around raising teachers’ awareness of which pupils reached the higher standards in their Year 2 tests. In addition, senior leaders are making the most able pupils a key focus for their ongoing monitoring of teaching and pupils’ progress. Subject leaders are at the early stages of considering how they will train teachers to challenge the most able more effectively. Currently, the most able Year 6 pupils have one-to-one discussions with their teachers to talk about their learning and progress. Leaders have also introduced a weekly after-school club for this group. However, staff plans to draw up strategies to challenge the most able pupils are not yet sufficiently developed.  I discussed with leaders how they helped pupils who joined the school at different times during the year make good progress.  These pupils said that class ‘buddies’ and caring adults help them to quickly settle

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Inspection findings

down into school routines. They swiftly make new friends. Class teachers and a specialist teacher for pupils for whom English is an additional language check pupils’ skills in reading, writing and mathematics when they arrive at the school. Leaders use this information to tailor support for each pupil so that it closely meets their needs. Case studies confirm that, owing to the good pastoral support and teaching, these pupils make consistently good progress from their starting points. The new inclusion leader took up her post at the start of this term. She has made a strong start. She has plans to train teachers to further improve their skills in integrating pupils new to English for even longer periods into the main lessons and thus reduce the need for out-of-class support.  I considered how well leaders are decreasing rates of persistent absence. Although overall attendance has been above average since the previous

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Inspection findings

inspection, the overall rate of persistent absence in 2015/16 was above average. Pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those with special educational needs support were in the top 10% nationally.  Senior leaders appointed an assistant headteacher in January 2017 with the responsibility for engaging parents, increasing attendance and improving punctuality. She immediately made her high expectations for regular attendance and punctuality very clear to parents and pupils. She significantly raised the profile of attendance, for instance, by weekly class attendance displays and weekly rewards for best attendance and punctuality. The assistant headteacher monitors attendance and punctuality very closely. She communicates concerns with parents and supports them though punctuality workshops, providing them with alarm clocks and helping them to plan their daily routines, for instance. She also works with external agencies to offer additional support to families who have

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Inspection findings

difficulties in ensuring that their children attend school regularly and punctually. As a result of her work during the spring and summer terms, the overall attendance in 2016/17 improved from 96.4% in 2015/16 to 97.05% and persistent absence reduced from 10.5% to 6.5%. These figures include a marked reduction in the persistent absence of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals and those pupils who have special educational needs and/or disabilities who receive support.

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Next steps for the school

Leaders and those responsible for governance should ensure that:

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Next steps for the school

 they build on their work to increase pupils’ progress in reading so that pupils consistently make progress that is as strong as their progress in writing and mathematics  they sharpen their planning to support the most able pupils across the subjects and year groups to reach the high standards of which they are capable  teachers further develop their skills to challenge pupils with more difficult work so that greater proportions attain higher standards.

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Next steps for the school

I am copying this letter to the chair of trustees and the chief executive officer or equivalent of the multi academy trust, the director of education for the Diocese of London, the regional schools commissioner and the director of children’s services for Haringey. This letter will be published on the Ofsted website.

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Information about the inspection

The inspector carried out the following activities during the inspection: meetings with senior leaders and the leaders of literacy, inclusion and attendance as well as the chief executive of the London Diocesan Board of Schools Academies, the chair of the trust and the chair of the local academy committee; joint visits to classrooms with the head of school; scrutinising a range of documentation, information about outcomes for groups of pupils, policy documentation, attendance records and information about safeguarding; and hearing pupils read and meeting formally with four pupils who joined the school at other than the usual time.

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Information about the inspection

There were no responses to Ofsted’s online survey, Parent View.

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